La Didone abbandonata / 5. Studie / Streichquartett / Umbau 2 / Tragicomedia

Michael Hirsch began to work as a composer in 1976, with occasional interruptions for theatre engagements. In addition to instrumental music and music theatre, the genre of musique concrète is an important part of his compositional oeuvre as is illustrated impressively by the works recorded on this CD:

“La Didone abbandonata” is based on the opera seria text of the same name by Pietro Metastasio from 1724. For his version Hirsch reduced the number of the dramatis personae to the two protagonists Dido and Aeneas and distilled their texts down to one monologue each – combining these sometimes to create dialogues – in order to present the core of this drama about a relationship in the most concentrated form possible.

The musique concrète compositions “5. Studie” and “Umbau 2” are associated with Hirsch’s project “Das Konvolut” [”The Convolution“], in which pieces, concepts and materials from various sources and genres are brought together. The present version of “5. Studie” was composed especially for this CD. “Umbau 2” is generated from the supplementary material for his opera “Das stille Zimmer” [“The Quiet Room”].

There are some obvious musical connections between the “String Quartet” and “Tragicomedia”: various musical elements, particularly harmonic structures from the quartet, were developed further in the madrigal opera. The content of “Tragicomedia” is based on a key work of Spanish literature: “La tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea” by Fernando de Rojas (ca. 1499). Hirsch’s composition combines and jumbles dialogue fragments from the literary sources so that they are constantly hovering between a linear narrative and understandable storyline and an associative collage.